I'll Be Home for Christmas
by wellhowdythere
Summary: He promised he'd come back by Christmas...but I know that he is gone for good. Sasuke waits for Naruto to come home from battle.


**I'll Be Home For Christmas**

Sasuke waits in the dark for his soldier to come home.

Sasu/Naru AU._Thought_.

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_The dobe broke his promise,_ Sasuke thought, his mental voice tinged with bitterness. _He said that this Christmas, he'll finally come home_.

Tonight was Christmas eve. Naruto wasn't coming.

The thought was cut off at the sight of the crisp white letter sitting on the coffee table, the military seal gleaming in the dull lighting of the living room, mocking him. The red bow that had held the paper closed lay nearby, seeming almost festive in the dark.

Sasuke was feeling far from festive.

The one gift he had received this year had been from the army. A fucking letter from the fucking army to tell him that Naruto, his Naruto, had gone missing in action, sent Onwards in battle.

Sasuke was the only person close to Naruto that they could find, the letter said. Of course. Both of them had been completely alone before they met- not a vague, fleeting loneliness, but the sharp pain of being completely estranged to the rest of society, like a gingerbread cookie in the middle of a preschool- waiting to be swallowed whole and disapear entirely.

They had formed and unbreakable bond over this loneliness, when they found that the only people that they had left were each other, their families lost in the same military force that Naruto had served in. The loneliness had driven the two orphans together, clinging to one another on the sea of life as a drowning man holds a branch on a riverbank.

They had had an agreement- they belonged to each other, and they would float together, and never let go.

That was gone now.

Sasuke bowed his head as waves of loneliness washed over him, worse than ever before, because his time with Naruto had left his wounds half healed and his barriers half down, and now that he was gone, Sasuke was left shattered, incredibly and impossibly alone. Naruto had been the only thing keeping him sane, the scotch tape that held his smashed remains together, each day they spent together sealing the cracks, little by little.

The cracks had opened more and more while Naruto was gone, fighting in the army to avenge his family and prove himself, but Sasuke had held himself together, knowing that this was something Naruto had to do, and holding on to the hope that he would come back.

Now that the hope was gone, it felt like there was a hole right through his heart, matching the bullet that had, in all probability, taken Naruto.

His Naruto.

His blonde, idiot, smiling, beautiful Naruto.

—-

Sasuke fell asleep on the couch that night, a bottle of whiskey in one hand, left from a vain attempt to drink his sorrows away, and the dreaded letter clenched tightly in the other, the black ink running from his tears, which continued to fall, weaving salty tracks down his face even in sleep.

He was awoken before the sun on Christmas day by a loud banging on the door, and was already to the door when the sadness hit him again, hunching his shoulders in an attempt to ward off the pain.

Wrenching the door open with a snarl, he paused, his heart catching at the sight of the army boots on his doorstep.

The boots of a man.

A tall, scarred man, leaning heavily on a crutch, dressed in a full army uniform, with tanned skin, bright blond hair and sparkling blue eyes…

…the most beautiful blue eyes.

Naruto.

The men stood there, frozen in the doorway, until their senses returned. They registered the differences from their memories- Naruto's scars and the muscles now bulging under his uniform, the dark circles under Sasuke's eyes and his slender, now skinny form from a worry-induced drop in weight.

Then the tension snapped, and all that mattered was each other as Naruto swiftly crossed the doorway and pulled Sasuke into a crushing embrace, meant to cure the loneliness of the last three years they had spent apart.

Naruto pulled away from the kiss long enough to whisper "Merry Christmas, teme".

The End.


End file.
